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9/11Senate Report on CIA Torture - 2014 - PDF - Download
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Senate Report on CIA Torture - 2014 - PDF - Download
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The Committee makes the following findings and conclusions:
#1: The CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of
acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.
The Committee fmds, based on a review of CIA interrogation records, that the use of the CIA's
enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of obtaining accurate information
or gaining detainee cooperation.
For example, according to CIA records, seven of the 39 CIA detainees known to have been
subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques produced no intelligence while in CIA
custody.* CIA detainees who were subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques
were usually subjected to the techniques immediately after being rendered to CIA custody.
Other detainees provided significant accurate intelligence prior to, or without having been
subjected to these techniques.
While being subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and afterwards, multiple
CIA detainees fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence. Detainees provided
fabricated information on critical intelligence issues, including the terrorist threats which the
CIA identified as its highest priorities.
At numerous times thi'oughout the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, CIA personnel
assessed that the most effective method for acquiring intelligence from detainees, including from
detainees the CIA considered to be the most "high-value," was to confront the detainees with
information already acquired by the Intelligence Community. CIA officers regularly called into
question whether the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques were effective, assessing that the
use of the techniques failed to elicit detainee cooperation or produce accurate intelligence.
#2: The CIA's justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on
inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.
The CIA represented to the White House, the National Security Council, the Department of
Justice, the CIA Office of Inspector General, the Congress, and the public that the best measure
of effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques was examples of specific
terrorist plots "thwarted" and specific terrorists captured as a result of the use of the techniques.
The CIA used these examples to claim that its enhanced interrogation techniques were not only
effective, but also necessary to acquire "otherwise unavailable" actionable intelligence that
"saved lives."
The Committee reviewed 20 of the most frequent and prominent examples of purported
counterterrorism successes that the CIA has attributed to the use of its enhanced interrogation
techniques, and found them to be wrong in fundamental respects. In some cases, there was no
relationship between the cited counterterrorism success and any information provided by
detainees during or after the use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. In the
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remaining cases, the CIA inaccurately claimed that specific, otherwise unavailable information
was acquired from a CIA detainee "as a result" of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques,
when in fact the information was either: (1) corroborative of information already available to the
CIA or other elements of the U.S. Intelligence Community from sources other than the CIA
detainee, and was therefore not "otherwise unavailable"; or (2) acquired from the CIA detainee
prior to the use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. The examples provided by the
CIA included numerous factual inaccuracies.
In providing the "effectiveness" examples to policymakers, the Department of Justice, and
others, the CIA consistently omitted the significant amount of relevant intelligence obtained
from sources other than CIA detainees who had been subjected to the CIA's enhanced
interrogation techniques—leaving the false impression the CIA was acquiring unique
information from the use of the techniques.
Some of the plots that the CIA claimed to have "disrupted" as a result of the CIA's enhanced
interrogation techniques were assessed by intelligence and law enforcement officials as being
infeasible or ideas that were never operationalized.
#3: The interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA
represented to policymakers and others.
Beginning with the CIA's first detainee, Abu Zubaydah, and continuing with numerous others,
the CIA applied its enhanced interrogation techniques with significant repetition for days or
weeks at a time. Interrogation techniques such as slaps and "wallings" (slamming detainees
against a wall) were used in combination, frequently concurrent with sleep deprivation and
nudity. Records do not support CIA representations that the CIA initially used an "an open, nonthreatening
approach,"^ or that interrogations began with the "least coercive technique possible"^
and escalated to more coercive techniques only as necessary.
The waterboarding technique was physically harmful, inducing convulsions and vomiting. Abu
Zubaydah, for example, became "completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open,
full mouth.'"^ Internal CIA records describe the waterboarding of Khalid Shaykh Mohammad as
evolving into a "series of near drownings."^
Sleep deprivation involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in
stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads. At least five detainees
experienced disturbing hallucinations during prolonged sleep deprivation and, in at least two of
those cases, the CIA nonetheless continued the sleep deprivation.
Contrary to CIA representations to the Department of Justice, the CIA instructed personnel that
the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah would take "precedence" over his medical care,^ resulting in
the deterioration of a bullet wound Abu Zubaydah incurred during his capture. In at least two
other cases, the CIA used its enhanced interrogation techniques despite warnings from CIA
medical personnel that the techniques could exacerbate physical injuries. CIA medical personnel
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treated at least one detainee for swelling in order to allow the continued use of standing sleep
deprivation.
At least five CIA detainees were subjectedto "rectal rehydration" or rectal feeding without
documented medical necessity. The CIA placed detainees in ice water "baths." The CIA led
several detainees to believe they would never be allowed to leave CIA custody alive, suggesting
to one detainee that he would only leave in a coffin-shaped box.^ Oneinterrogator told another
detainee that he would never go to court, because "we can never let the world know what I have
done to you."^ CIA officers also threatened at least three detainees withharm to theirfamilies—
to include threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a
detainee, and a threat to "cut [a detainee's] mother's throat."^
#4: The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had
represented to policymakers and others.
Conditions at CIA detention sites were poor, and were especially bleak early in the program.
CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly
shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste.
Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of
interrogations described COBALT as a "dungeon."^^ Another seniorCIAofficer stated that
COBALT was itself an enhancedinterrogation technique.^'
At times, the detainees at COBALT were walked around naked or were shackled with their
hands above their heads for extended periods of time. Other times, the detainees at COBALT
were subjected to what was described as a "rough takedown," in which approximately five CIA
officers would scream at a detainee, drag him outside of his cell, cut his clothes off, and secure
him with Mylar tape. The detainee would then be hooded and dragged up and down a long
corridor while being slapped and punched.
Even after the conditions of confinement improved with the construction of new detention
facilities, detainees were held in total isolation except when being interrogated or debriefed by
CIA personnel.
Throughout the program, multiple CIA detainees who were subjected to the CIA's enhanced
interrogation techniques and extended isolation exhibited psychological and behavioral issues,
including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation.
Multiple psychologists identified the lack of human contact experienced by detainees as a cause
of psychiatric problems.
#5: The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice,
impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
From 2002 to 2007, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the Department of Justice relied
on CIA representations regarding: (1) the conditions of confinement for detainees, (2) the
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applicationof the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, (3) the physical effects of the
techniques on detainees, and (4) the effectiveness of the techniques. Those representations were
inaccurate in material respects.
The Department of Justice did not conduct independent analysis or verification of the
information it received from the CIA. The department warned, however, that if the facts
provided by the CIA were to change, its legal conclusions might not apply. When the CIA
determined that information it had provided to the Department of Justice was incorrect, the CIA
rarely informed the department.
Prior to the initiation of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program and throughout the life
of the program, the legal justifications for the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques relied on
the CIA's claim that the techniques were necessary to save lives. In late 2001 and early 2002,
senior attorneys at the CIA Office of General Counselfirst examined the legal implications of
using coercive interrogation techniques. CIA attorneys stated that "a novel application of the
necessity defense" could be used "to avoid prosecution of U.S. officials who tortured to obtain
information that saved many lives."^^^
Having reviewed information provided by the CIA, the OLC included the "necessity defense" in
its August 1, 2002, memorandum to the White House counsel on Standards of Conductfor
Interrogation. The OLC determined that "under the cun*ent circumstances, necessity or selfdefense
may justify interrogation methods that might violate" the criminal prohibition against
torture.
On the same day, a second OLC opinion approved, for the first time, the use of 10 specific
coercive interrogation techniques against Abu Zubaydah—subsequently referred to as the CIA's
"enhanced interrogation techniques." The OLC relied on inaccurate CIA representations about
Abu Zubaydah's status in al-Qa'ida and the interrogation team's "certain[ty]" that Abu
Zubaydah was withholding information about planned terrorist attacks. The CIA's
representations to the OLC about the techniques were also inconsistent with how the techniques
would later be applied.
In March 2005, the CIA submitted to the Department of Justice various examples of the
"effectiveness" of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques that were inaccurate. OLC
memoranda signed on May 30, 2005, and July 20, 2007, relied on these representations,
determining that the techniques were legal in part because they produced "specific, actionable
intelHgence" and "substantial quantities of otherwise unavailable intelligence" that saved lives.
#6: The CIA has actively avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.
The CIA did not brief the leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the
CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques until September 2002, after the techniques had been
approved and used. The CIA did not respond to Chairman Bob Graham's requests for additional
information in 2002, noting in its own internal communications that he would be leaving the
Committee in Januai-y 2003. The CIA subsequently resisted efforts by Vice Chairman John D.
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Rockefeller IV, to investigate the program, including by refusing in 2006 to provide requested
documents to the full Committee.
The CIA restricted access to information about the program from members of the Committee
beyond the chairman and vice chairman until September 6, 2006, the day the president publicly
acknowledged the program, by which time 117 of the 119known detainees had already entered
CIA custody. Until then, the CIA had declined to answer questions fi"om other Committee
members that related to CIA inteiTogation activities.
Prior to September 6, 2006, the CIA provided inaccurate information to the leadership of the
Committee. Briefings to the full Conmiittee beginning on September 6, 2006, also contained
numerous inaccui*acies, including inaccurate descriptions of how interrogation techniques were
applied and what information was obtained from CIA detainees. The CIA misrepresented the
views of members of Congress on a number of occasions. After multiple senators had been
critical of the program and written letters expressing concerns to CIA Director Michael Hayden,
Director Hayden nonetheless told a meeting of foreign ambassadors to the United States that
every Committee member was "fully briefed," and that "[t]his is not CIA's program. This is not
the President's program. This is America's program."^^ TheCIAalso provided inaccurate
information describing the views of U.S. senators about the program to the Department of
Justice.
A year after being briefed on the program, the House and Senate Conference Committee
considering the Fiscal Year 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill voted to limit the CIA to using
only interrogation techniques authorized by the Army Field Manual. That legislation was
approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives in Febniary 2008, and was vetoed by
President Bush on March 8, 2008.
#7: The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.
The CIA provided extensive amounts of inaccurate and incomplete information related to the
operation and effectiveness of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program to the White
House, the National Security Council principals, and their staffs. This prevented an accurate and
complete understanding of the program by Executive Branch officials, thereby impeding
oversight and decision-making.
According to CIA records, no CIA officer, up to and including CIA Directors George Tenet and
Porter Goss, briefed the president on the specific CIA enhanced interrogation techniques before
April 2006. By that time, 38 of the 39 detainees identified as having been subjected to the CIA's
enhanced interrogation techniques had already been subjected to the techniques.The CIA did
not inform the president or vice president of the location of CIA detention facilities other than
Country
At the direction of the White House, the secretaries of state and defense - both principals on the
National Security Council - were not briefed on program specifics until September 2003. An
internal CIA email from July 2003 noted that "... theWH [White House] is extremely concerned
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[Secretary] Powell would blow his stack if he were to be briefed on what's been going on."^^
Deputy Secretary of State Armitage complained that he and Secretary Powell were "cut out" of
the National Security Council coordination process.^®
The CIA repeatedly provided incomplete and inaccurate information to White House personnel
regarding the operation and effectiveness of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
This includes the provision of inaccurate statements similar to those provided to other elements
of the U.S. Government and later to the public, as well as instances in which specific questions
from White House officials were not answered truthfully or fully. In briefings for the National
Security Council principals and White House officials, the CIA advocated for the continued use
of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, warning that "[tjermination of this program will
result in loss of life, possibly extensive."^^
#8: The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases
impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.
The CIA, in the conduct of its Detention and Interrogation Program, complicated, and in some
cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department, and the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence (ODNI). The CIA withheld or restricted information relevant to these
agencies' missions and responsibilities, denied access to detainees, and provided inaccurate
information on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program to these agencies.
The use of coercive interrogation techniques and covert detention facilities that did not meet
traditional U.S. standards resulted in the FBI and the Department of Defense limiting their
involvement in CIA interrogation and detention activities. This reduced the ability of the U.S.
Government to deploy available resources and expert personnel to interrogate detainees and
operate detention facilities. The CIA denied specific requests from FBI Director Robert Mueller
III for FBI access to CIA detainees that the FBI believed was necessary to understand CIA
detainee reporting on threats to the U.S. Homeland. Information obtained from CIA detainees
was restricted within the Intelhgence Community, leading to concerns among senior CIA
officers that Hmitations on sharing information undermined government-wide counterterrorism
analysis.
The CIA blocked State Department leadership from access to information crucial to foreign
policy decision-making and diplomatic activities. The CIA did not inform two secretaries of
state of locations of CIA detention facilities, despite the significant foreign policy implications
related to the hosting of clandestine CIA detention sites and the fact that the political leaders of
host countries were generally informed of their existence. Moreover, CIA officers told U.S.
ambassadors not to discuss the CIA program with State Department officials, preventing the
ambassadors from seeking guidance on the policy implications of establishing CIA detention
facilities in the countries in which they served.
In two countries, U.S. ambassadors were informed of plans to establish a CIA detention site in
the countries where they were serving after the CIA had already entered into agreements with the
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countries to host the detention sites. In two other countries where negotiations on hosting new
CIA detention facilities were takingplace,the CIA told local government officials not to
inform the U.S. ambassadors.
The ODNI was providedwith inaccurate and incomplete information about the program,
preventing the director of national intelligencefrom effectively carrying out the director's
statutory responsibility to serve as the principal advisor to the president on intelligence matters.
The inaccurate informationprovided to the ODNI by the CIA resulted in the ODNIreleasing
inaccurate information to the public in September 2006.
#9; The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA's Office of Inspector General.
The CIA avoided, resisted, and otherwise impeded oversight of the CIA's Detention and
Interrogation Program by the CIA's Office oHnspector General (OIG). The CIA did not brief
the OIG on the program until after the death of a detainee, by which time the CIA had held at
least 22 detainees at two different CIA detention sites. Once notified, the OIG reviewed the
CIA's Detention and InterrogationProgramand issued several reports, including an important
May 2004 "Special Review" of the program that identified significant concerns and deficiencies.
During the OIG reviews, CIA personnel provided OIG with inaccurate information on the
operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, as well as on the
effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. The inaccurate information was
included in the final May 2004 Special Review, which was later declassified and released
publicly, and remains uncorrected.
In 2005, CIA Director Goss requested in writing that the inspector general not initiate further
reviews of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program until reviews already underway were
completed. In 2007, Director Hayden ordered an unprecedented review of the OIG itself in
response to the OIG's inquiries into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
#10: The CIA coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including
inaccurate information concerning the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation
techniques.
The CIA's Office of Public Affairs and senior CIA officials coordinated to share classified
information on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program to select members of the media to
counter public criticism, shape public opinion, and avoid potential congressional action to restrict
the CIA's detention and inteiTogation authorities and budget. These disclosures occurred when
the program was a classified covert action program, and before the CIA had briefed the full
Committee membership on the program.
The deputy director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center wrote to a colleague in 2005, shortly
before being interviewed by a media outlet, that "we either get out and sell, or we get hammered,
which has implications beyond the media. [C]ongress reads it, cuts our authorities, messes up
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ourbudget... weeither put outour story or wegeteaten. [T]here is no middle ground."^ The
same CIA officer explained to a colleague that "when the [Washington Post]/[New York Tjimes
quotes 'senior intelligence official,' it's us... authorized and directed by opa [CIA's Office of
Public Affairs].
Much of the information the CIA provided to the media on the operation of the CIA's Detention
and Interrogation Program and the effectiveness of its enhanced inteiTogation techniques was
inaccurate and was similar to the inaccurate information provided by the CIA to the Congress,
the Department of Justice, and the White House.
#11: The CIA was unprepared as it began operating its Detention and Interrogation
Program more than six months after being granted detention authorities.
On September 17, 2001, the President signed a covert action Memorandum of Notification
(MON) granting the CIA unprecedented counterterrorism authorities, including the authority to
covertly capture and detain individuals "posing a continuing, serious threat of violence or death
to U.S. persons and interests or planning terrorist activities." The MON made no reference to
interrogations or coercive interrogation techniques.
The CIA was not prepared to take custody of its first detainee. In the fall of 2001, the CIA
explored the possibility of establishing clandestine detention facilities in several countries. The
CIA's review identified risks associated with clandestine detention that led it to conclude that
U.S. military bases were the best option for the CIA to detain individuals under the MON
authorities. In late March 2002, the imminent capture of Abu Zubaydah prompted the CIA to
again consider various detention options. In part to avoid declaring Abu Zubaydah to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, which would be required if he were detained at a U.S.
militaiy base, the CIA decided to seek authorization to clandestinely detain Abu Zubaydah at a
facility inCountry |—a country that had not previously been considered as a potential host for a
CIA detention site. A senior CIA officer indicated that the CIA "will have to acknowledge
certain gaps in ourplanning/preparations,""^ butstated that this plan would be presented to the
president. At a Presidential Daily Briefing session that day, the president approved CIA's
proposal to detain Abu Zubaydah in Country |.
The CIA lacked a plan for the eventual disposition of its detainees. After taking custody of Abu
Zubaydah, CIA officers concluded that he "should remain incommunicado for the remainder of
his life," which "may preclude [Abu Zubaydah] from being turned over to another country.
The CIA did not review its past experience with coercive interrogations, or its previous statement
to Congress that "inhumane physical or psychological techniques are counterproductive because
they do notproduce intelligence and will probably result in false answers."-^ The CIA also did
not contact other elements of the U.S. Government with interrogation expertise.
In July 2002, on the basis of consultations with contract psychologists, and with very limited
internal deliberation, the CIA requested approval from the Department of Justice to use a set of
coercive interrogation techniques. The techniques were adapted from the training of U.S.
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military personnel at the U.S. Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)
school, which was designed to prepare U.S. military personnel for the conditions and treatment
to which they might be subjected if taken prisoner by countries that do not adhere to the Geneva
Conventions.
As it began detention and interrogation operations, the CIA deployed personnelwho lacked
relevant training and experience. The CIAbegan interrogation training more than seven months
after taking custody of Abu Zubaydah, and more than thi'ee months after the CIA began using its
"enhanced inteiTogation techniques." CIADirector George Tenet issued formal guidelines for
interrogations and conditions of confinement at detention sites in January 2003, by which time
40 of the 119 known detainees had been detained by the CIA.
#12: The CIA's management and operation of its Detention and Interrogation Program
was deeply flawed throughout the program's duration, particularly so in 2002 and early
2003.
The CIA's COBALT detention facility in Country | began operations inSeptember 2002 and
ultimately housed more than half of the 119CIA detainees identified in this Study. The CIA
kept few formal records of the detainees in its custody at COBALT. Untrained CIA officers at
the facility conducted frequent, unauthorized, and unsupervised interrogations of detainees using
harsh physical interrogation techniques that were not—and never became—part of the CIA's
formal "enhanced" interrogation program. The CI^)laced ajunior officer with no relevant
experience in charge of COBALT. On November jf, 2002, adetainee who had been held
partially nude and chained to a concrete floor died from suspected hypothermia at the facility.
At the time, no single unit at CIA Headquarters had clear responsibility for CIA detention and
interrogation operations. In interviews conducted in 2003 with the Office of Inspector General,
CIA's leadership and senior attorneys acknowledged that they had little or no awareness of
operations at COBALT, and some believed that enhanced interrogation techniques were not used
there.
Although CIA Director Tenet in January 2003 issued guidance for detention and interrogation
activities, serious management problems persisted. For example, in December 2003, CIA
personnel reported that they had made the "unsettling discovery" that the CIA had been "holding
a number of detainees about whom" the CIA knew "very litde" at multiple detention sites in
Country i.-'
Divergent lines of authority for interrogationactivities persisted through at least 2003. Tensions
among interrogators extended to complaints about the safety and effectiveness of each other's
interrogation practices.
The CIA placed individuals with no applicable experience or training in senior detention and
interrogation roles, and providedinadequate linguistic and analytical support to conduct effective
questioning of CIA detainees, resulting in diminished intelligence. The lack of CIA personnel
available to question detainees, which theCIAinspector general referred to as "an ongoing
problem,persisted throughout the program.
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In 2005, the chief of the CIA's BLACK detention site, where many of the detainees the CIA
assessed as "high-value" were held, complained that CIA Headquarters "managers seem to be
selecting either problem, underperforming officers, new, totally inexperienced officers or
whomever seems to be willing and able to deploy at any given time," resulting in "the production
of mediocre or, I dare say, useless intelligence.
Numerous CIA officers had serious documented personal and professional problems—including
histories of violence and records of abusive ti'eatment of others—that should have called into
question their suitability to participatein the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, their
employment with the CIA, and their continued access to classified information. In nearly all
cases, these problems were known to the CIA prior to the assignment of these officers to
detention and interrogation positions.
#13: Two contract psychologists devised the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and
played a central role in the operation, assessments, and management of the CIA's
Detention and Interrogation Program. By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced
operations related to the program.
The CIA contracted with two psychologists to develop, operate, and assess its interrogation
operations. The psychologists' prior experience was at the U.S. Air Force Survival, Evasion,
Resistance and Escape (SERE) school. Neither psychologist had any experience as an
interrogator, nor did either have specialized knowledge of al-Qa'ida, a background in
counterterrorism, or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise.
On the CIA's behalf, the contract psychologists developed theories of interrogation based on
"learned helplessness,"^^ and developed the list of enhanced inteiTogation techniques thatwas
approved for use against Abu Zubaydah and subsequent CIA detainees. The psychologists
personally conducted interrogations of some of the CIA's most significant detainees using these
techniques. They also evaluated whether detainees' psychological state allowed for the
continued use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, including some detainees whom
they were themselves interrogating or had interrogated. The psychologists carried out inherently
governmental functions, such as acting as liaison between the CIA and foreign intelligence
services, assessing the effectiveness of the interrogation program, and participating in the
interrogation of detainees in held in foreign government custody.
In 2005, the psychologists formed a company specifically for the purpose of conducting their
work with the CIA. Shortly thereafter, the CIA outsourced vktually all aspects of the program.
In 2006, the value of the CIA's base conti"act with the company formed by the psychologists with
all options exercised was in excess of $180 million; the contractors received $81 million prior to
the contract's termination in 2009. In 2007, the CIA provided a multi-year indemnification
agreement to protect the company and its employees from legal liability arising out of the
program. The CIA has since paid out more than $1 million pursuant to the agreement.
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In 2008, the CIA's Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Group, the lead unit for detention and
interrogation opera^ns at the CIA, had atotal of positions, which were filled with | CIA
staff officers and contractors, meaning that contractors made up 85% of the workforce for
detention and interrogation operations.
#14: CIA detainees were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques that had not been
approved by the Department of Justice or had not been authorized by CIA Headquarters.
Prior to mid-2004, the CIA routinely subjected detainees to nudity and dietary manipulation.
The CIA also used abdominal slaps and cold water dousing on several detainees during that
period. None of these techniques had been approved by the Department of Justice.
At least 17 detainees were subjected to CIA enhanced interrogation techniques without
authorization from CIA Headquarters. Additionally, multiple detainees were subjected to
techniques that were applied in ways that diverged from the specific authorization, or were
subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques by interrogators who had not been authorized to
use them. Although these incidents were recorded in CIA cables and, in at least some cases were
identified at the time by supervisors at CIA Headquarters as being inappropriate, corrective
action was rarely taken against the interrogators involved.
#15: The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of
individuals it detained, and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for
detention. The CIA's claims about the number of detainees held and subjected to its
enhanced Interrogation techniques were inaccurate.
The CIA never conducted a comprehensive audit or developed a complete and accurate list of the
individuals it had detained or subjected to its enhanced interrogation techniques. CIA statements
to the Committee and later to the public that the CIA detained fewer than 100 individuals, and
that less than a third of those 100detainees were subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation
techniques, were inaccurate. The Committee's review of CIA records determined that the CIA
detained at least 119 individuals, of whom at least 39 were subjected to the CIA's enhanced
interrogation techniques.
Of the 119 known detainees, at least 26 were wrongfully held and did not meet the detention
standard in the September 2001 Memorandum of Notification (MON). These included an
"intellectually challenged" man whose CIA detention was used solely as leverage to get a family
member to provide information, two individuals who were intelligence sources for foreign
liaison services and were former CIA sources, and two individuals whom the CIA assessed to be
connected to al-Qa'ida based solely on information fabricated by a CIA detainee subjected to the
CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques. Detainees often remained in custody for months after
the CIA determined that they did not meet the MON standard. CIA records provide insufficient
information to justify the detention of many other detainees.
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CIA Headquarters instructed that at least four CIA detainees be placed in host country detention
facilities because the individuals did not meet the MON standard for CIA detention. The host
country had no independent reason to hold the detainees.
A full accounting of CIA detentions and interrogations may be impossible, as records in some
cases are non-existent, and, in many other cases, are spai'se and insufficient. There were almost
no detailed records of the detentions and interrogations at the CIA's COBALT detention facility
in 2002, and almost no such records for the CIA's GRAY detention site, also in Country At
CIA detention facilities outside of Country the CIA kept increasingly less-detailed records of
its interrogation activities over the course of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.
#16: The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation
techniques.
The CIA never conducted a credible, comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of its enhanced
interrogation techniques, despite a recommendation by the CIA inspector general and similar
requests by the national security advisor and the leadership of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence.
Internal assessments of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program were conducted by CIA
personnel who participated in the development and management of the program, as well as by
CIA contractors who had a financial interest in its continuation and expansion. An "informal
operational assessment" of the program, led by two senior CIA officers who were not part of the
CIA's Counterterrorism Center, determined that it would not be possible to assess the
effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques without violating "Federal Policy
for the Protection of Human Subjects" regarding human experimentation. The CIA officers,
whose review relied on briefings with CIA officers and contractors running the program,
concluded only that the "CIA Detainee Program" was a "success" without addressing the
effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.^^
In 2005, in response to the recommendation by the inspector general for a review of the
effectiveness of each of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, the CIA asked two
individuals not employed by the CIA to conduct a broader review of "the entirety of the
"rendition, detention and interrogation program."^"^ According to one individual, the review was
"heavily reliant on the willingness of [CIA CounterteiTorism Center] staff to provide us with the
factual material that forms the basis of our conclusions." That individual acknowledged lacking
the requisite expertise to review the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation
techniques, and concluded only that "the program," meaning all CIA detainee reporting
regardless of whether it was connected to the use of the CIA's enhanced inteiTogation
techniques, was a "great success."^'' The second reviewer concluded that "there is no objective
way to answer the question of efficacy" of the techniques.
There are no CIA records to indicate that any of the reviews independently validated the
"effectiveness" claims presented by the CIA, to include basic confirmation that the intelligence
cited by the CIA was acquired from CIA detainees during or after the use of the CIA's enhanced
Page 13 of 19
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
111! II III I
interrogation techniques. Nordid the reviews seek to confirm whether the intelligence cited by
the CIA as being obtained "as a result" of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques was
unique and "otherwise unavailable," as claimed by the CIA, and not previously obtainedfrom
other sources.
#17: The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious and
significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systemic and individual management
failures.
CIA officers and CIA contractors who were found to have violated CIA policies or performed
poorly were rarely held accountable or removed from positions of responsibility.
Significant events, to include the death and injury of CIA detainees, the detention of individuals
who did not meet the legal standard to be held, the use of unauthorized interrogation techniques
against CIA detainees, and the provision of inaccurate information on the CIA program did not
result in appropriate, effective, or in many eases, any corrective actions. CIA managers who
were aware of failings and shortcomings in the program but did not intervene, or who failed to
provide proper leadership and management, were also not held to account.
On two occasions in which the CIA inspector general identified wrongdoing, accountability
recommendations were ovennled by senior CIA leadership. In one instance, involving the death
of a CIA detainee at COBALT, CIA Headquarters decided not to take disciplinary action against
an officer involved because, at the time, CIAHeadquarters had been "motivated to extract any
and all operational information" from the detainee.^^ In another instance related to a wrongful
detention, no action was taken against a CIA officer because, "[t]he Director strongly believes
that mistakes should be expected in a business filled with uncertainty," and "the Director
believes the scale tips decisively in favor of accepting mistakes that over connect the dots against
those thatunder connect them."^^ In neither case was administrative action taken against CIA
management personnel.
#18: The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and
objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and
Interrogation Program.
Critiques, criticisms, and objections were expressed by numerous CIA officers, including senior
personnel overseeing and managing the program, as well as analysts, interrogators, and medical
officers involved in or supporting CIA detention and interrogation operations.
Examples of these concerns include CIA officers questioning the effectiveness of the CIA's
enhanced interrogation techniques, interrogators disagreeing with the use of such techniques
against detainees whom they determined were not withholding information, psychologists
recommending less isolated conditions, and Office of Medical Services personnel questioning
both the effectiveness and safety of the techniques. These concerns were regularly overridden by
CIA management, and the CIA made few corrective changes to its policies governing the
1(11 'iM III I (HIN
Page 14 of 19
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
program. At times, CIA officers were instructed by supervisors not to put their concerns or
observations in written communications.
In several instances, CIA officers identified inaccuracies in CIA representations about the
program and its effectiveness to the Office of Inspector General, the White House, the
Department of Justice, the Congress, and the American public. The CIA nonetheless failed to
take action to correct these representations, and allowed inaccurate information to remain as the
CIA's official position.
The CIA was also resistant to, and highly critical of more formal critiques. The deputy director
for operations stated that the CIA inspector general's draft Special Review should have come to
the "conclusion that our efforts have thwarted attacks and saved lives,"^^ while the CIA general
counsel accused the inspector general of presenting "an imbalanced and inaccurate picmre" of
the program.'^^ A February 2007 report from the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), which the CIA acting general counsel initially stated "actually does not sound that far
removed from the realitywas also criticized. CIA officers prepared documents indicating
that "critical portions of the Report are patently false or misleading, especially certain key factual
claims..CIA Director Hayden testified to the Committee that "numerous false allegations of
physical and threatened abuse and faulty legal assumptions and analysis in the [ICRC] report
undermine its overall credibility.'"^^
#19; The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program was inherently unsustainable and
had effectively ended by 2006 due to unauthorized press disclosures, reduced cooperation
from other nations, and legal and oversight concerns.
The CIA required secrecy and cooperation from other nations in order to operate clandestine
detention facilities, and both had eroded significantly before President Bush publicly disclosed
the program on September 6, 2006. From the beginning of the program, the CIA faced
significant challenges in finding nations willing to host CIA clandestine detention sites. These
challenges became increasingly difficult over time. With the exception of Country the CIA
was forced to relocate detainees out of every country in which it established a detention facility
because of pressure from the host government or public revelations about the program.
Beginning in early 2005, the CIA sought unsuccessfully to convince the U.S. Department of
Defense to allow the transfer of numerous CIA detainees to U.S. military custody. By 2006, the
CIA admitted in its own talking points for CIA Director Porter Goss that, absent an
Administration decision on an "endgame" for detainees, the CIA was "stymied" and "the
program could collapse of its own weight.""^
Lack of access to adequate medical care for detainees in countries hosting the CIA's detention
facilities caused recunring problems. The refusal of one host country to admit a severely ill
detainee into a local hospital due to security concerns contributed to the closing of the CIA's
detention facility in that country. The U.S. Department of Defense also declined to provide
medical care to detainees upon CIA request.
Page 15 of 19
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
1(11 III ( III I
In mid-2003, a statement by the president for the United Nations International Day in Support of
Victims of Torture and a pubHc statement by the White House thatprisoners in U.S. custody are
treated "humanely" caused the CIA to question whether therewas continued policy support for
the program and seek reauthorization from the White House. In mid-2004, the CIA temporarily
suspended the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques after the CIA inspector general
recommended that the CIA seekan updated legal opinion from the Office of LegalCounsel. In
early 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court decision to grant certiorari in the case of Rasul v. Bush
prompted the CIA to move detainees out of a CIAdetention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In late 2005 and in 2006, the Detainee Treatment Act and then the U.S. Supreme Couit decision
in Hamdan v. Rumsfeldcaused the CIA to again temporarily suspend the use of its enhanced
interrogation techniques.
By 2006, press disclosures, the unwillingness of other countries to host existing or new detention
sites, and legal and oversight concerns had largely ended the CIA's ability to operate clandestine
detention facilities.
After detaining at least 113 individuals through 2004, the CIA brought only six additional
detainees into its custody: four in 2005, one in 2006, and one in 2007. By March 2006, the
program was operating in only one country. The CIA last used its enhanced interrogation
techniques on November 8, 2007. The CIA did not hold any detainees after April 2008.
#20; The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States'
standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.
The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Pi-ogram created tensions with U.S. partners and allies,
leading to formal demarches to the United States, and damaging and complicating bilateral
inteUigence relationships.
In one example, inJune 2004, the secretary ofstate ordered the U.S. ambassador inCountry | to
deliver ademarche to CounteyB/li^ssence demanding [Country | Government] provide full
access to all [Country | detainees" to the International Committee ofthe Red
Cross. At the time, however, the detainees Country | was holding included detainees being held
in secret at the CIA's behest."^^
More broadly, the program caused immeasurable damage to the United States' public standing,
as well as to the United States' longstanding global leadership on human rights in general and the
prevention of torture in particular.
CIA records indicate that the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program cost well over $300
million in non-personnel costs. This included funding for the CIA to construct and maintain
detention facilities, including two facilities costing nearly $| million that were never used, in
part due to host country political concerns.
To encourage governments to clandestinely host CIAdetention sites, or to increase supportfor
existing sites, the CIA provided millions of dollars in cash payments to foreign government
1(11 11 III I I mi Mill I
Page 16 of 19
UNCLASSIFIED
r;-'
UNCLASSIFIED
TOP SECRET// //NQFQRN
officials. CIA Headquaiters ciicQiira^^ Stations to eonstruct "wish lists" of iproposedi
financial assistance to
"thinlc bigf' in terms of that assistance.'*^
TQPSECRETO
I[enttties of foreign govemments|, iand to
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